


I see the look in your eyes (I know you're thirsting for blood)

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [34]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, I don't even know what to tag this as you guys, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26616010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: Nyx is incredibly confused and vaguely unsettled when he opens his front door the next morning at the crack of dawn to find Ardyn Izunia standing on his doorstep.
Relationships: Ardyn Izunia & Nyx Ulric
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 17
Kudos: 125





	I see the look in your eyes (I know you're thirsting for blood)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this chapter was utterly bizarre for me to write because I was originally going to transition straight into my next main plot point but then Ardyn literally just showed up out of nowhere and hijacked the chapter and if that isn't a summation of my entire relationship with him during this series I don't know what is. :P (Like, don't worry, the next actual plot point is still coming up soon, but it's been delayed a little bit, lol.)

**I see the look in your eyes (I know you're thirsting for blood)**

* * *

Nyx is incredibly confused and vaguely unsettled when he opens his front door the next morning at the crack of dawn to find Ardyn Izunia standing on his doorstep.

(The man looks well, surprisingly so for someone who had only recently been lugging around an indeterminable about of mystical plague within his body along with a untold number of daemons, and it's almost enough to make Nyx forget that the last time he'd seen Ardyn the ageless royal had been screaming his head off as he was bombarded with purifying magical power.)

"What the fuck," he says, keeping his voice calm through sheer force of will, "are you doing here?"

Ardyn gives a bright grin that Nyx does not trust in the slightest. "I came to say good morning!" he say, his voice so cheerful that it's almost menacing.

Nyx contemplates whether or not it's too late to stab the fucker in the face; It would just be _so_ satisfying. "It is _five in the morning_ , Ardyn, what the fuck."

"Yes, well, I suppose I should have waited for a more respectable hour, but I simply couldn't contain my curiosity any longer."

"Curiosity about what," Nyx growls, because it is _too early for this_. He doesn't care that Ardyn is technically not an enemy anymore, doesn't care that the bastard is technically human again (or at least as human as someone can get when they're two thousand years old and still full of magical power courtesy of their bloodline), doesn't care that he probably shouldn't murder Ardyn after expending so much effort to cure him of the Scourge less than seventy-two hours ago. He's _tired_ , he wants to _sleep_.

"Why, about _you_ , of course," Ardyn says, his tone silky smooth in a way that is distinctly unnerving.

Nyx slams the door in his face.

A knock sounds on his door a moment later, a quick series of raps against the wood.

Nyx considers warping himself away, maybe going over to Cor's and trading him a week of paid leave in exchange for a nap on the cushioned monstrosity that the Marshall calls a couch, but then heaves an aggravated sigh when Ardyn just knocks again, more insistently.

"You do realize that I could simply break this door down if I so desired it," the former-Chancellor remarks conversationally, voice only slightly muffled by the barrier of the door itself.

"You do realize that pissing me off is not a productive way to make me answer your questions," Nyx returns crankily as he yanks the door back open to glare at the asshole on his doorstep.

"Productive, no," Ardyn acknowledges. "but entertaining, yes."

Nyx seriously considers slamming the door in the bastard's face again, but a morbid sort of curiosity compels him to wave at the other man to come in instead. "How are you feeling?" he asks as he shuts and locks the door behind him, leading the way into the living room and trying not to bristle as Ardyn looks around at the sparse and dingy furnishings like he's formulating some sort of assessment.

"I assume you're referring to my recently-purged-of-evil state?" Ardyn replies, then gives a fluid shrug. "It's difficult to put into words. I had grown so used to the miasma of the Scourge within my soul that it feels quite strange to be without it." A bitter smile twists his mouth up at the corners, wry and darkly amused. "Would you call me insane, if I said that I missed it?"

Nyx shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot then wanders over to the coffee maker sitting on the counter dividing the living room from the kitchenette just so he can do something that keeps his hands busy. "Honestly? Yeah." Then he gives a shrug of his own. "But like you said, it's something you've been carrying around with you for a long time, right?" He carefully dumps a scoop of coffee grounds into the filter and flicks the switch on. "It can be hard to let go, sometimes, even when you know you should. Even if what you're holding on to hurts."

Nyx can't even begin to guess what's going through Ardyn's mind right now, and sure, part of that is that Ardyn is still obviously a little bit out of his gourd from sharing his body with daemons and an evil plague for so long, but part of it is also probably because Ardyn's life experiences are just so far removed from Nyx's own that it's almost incomprehensible.

Because Ardyn Izunia, the same smug and calculating bastard that's standing in front of him now, the man who would have burned the world down for the sake of revenge, had once been Ardyn Lucis Caelum, a healer. A man who would have been a king, the founder of the Lucis Caelum dynasty, if only the gods hadn't arbitrarily decided to shift their favor to someone else.

Because Nyx knows betrayal, can still taste the bloody bitterness that had coursed through him after seeing Drautos transform into Glauca before his very eyes, but he still can't wrap his mind around Ardyn being betrayed by his own _brother_. Such a thing contradicts everything Nyx believes in when it comes to loyalty and family. Not saving Selena is to this very day his greatest regret in life and even now if he could go back to that moment and die in her place so that she might live he would do it in a heartbeat; he can't possibly imagine a world, _any_ world, where either one of them would have stabbed the other in the back for the favor of some fickle deity; that wasn't what family _was_ , for them.

Family was trust and loyalty and being willing to stand by one another through anything, to fight and bleed and push yourself to the breaking point because they're _yours_ and you love them more than life itself.

(Pushing himself to the breaking point hadn't been enough, in the end, to save Selena, because he hadn't been strong enough or fast enough back then to protect his sister when the Empire came and waged war on Galahd.

He's spent the years since then pushing himself more and more, always moving forward and never stopping, because he's still fighting for his friends -the only family he has left- and for the future that his sister would have wanted to see.)

So no, he doesn't understand Ardyn or what he's been through, not really. But he understands holding on to things, understands not wanting to let go. He's actually pretty damn familiar with the concept, all things considered. He hasn't let go of Selena's death, after all, still carries the weight and guilt of it around with him even though he knows it isn't healthy to linger in the past that way, not when he's got so much living left to do before he sees her again on the other side. And he's still carrying the weight of that other timeline with him as well, all the what-could-have-beens piled up at the back of his mind, shrouded in ash and pain.

Ardyn, meanwhile, is once again watching Nyx with an intense expression, keen eyes roving over his face, tracking even the slightest changes of expression. "You," he says with an air of gravity, "are a bit of an enigma to me, Commander Ulric."

Nyx gives that statement the dubious side-eye it deserves and pours himself a cup of coffee. "Alright, I'll bite," he says after a moment, as he's stirring in a spoon of sugar, "how am I an enigma?"

Ardyn arches one regal eyebrow, expression faintly disbelieving. "You can't tell me that you're unaware of your own mystique," he replies.

Nyx takes a sip of his coffee, wincing a bit as it scalds his tongue. "Listen, asshole, either get to the point or get out of my apartment because it is too damn early for this and I have _no idea_ what you're talking about."

Well, that's not exactly true. He has a feeling that he knows _exactly_ what Ardyn is talking about, but Nyx really doesn't feel like answering all the barbed questions that he's sure Ardyn has about who he is and how he has Lucian magic and why he'd gone to the trouble of circumventing fate itself so he's content to play dumb and act the part of a clueless soldier.

Unfortunately for him, Ardyn is far too astute to buy the act, and levels Nyx with a thoroughly unimpressed look. "Let's forego the games, shall we?" he says, putting his hands on his hips in a way that comes across as vaguely judgmental. "I want answers."

Nyx snorts, takes another sip of coffee. "Well, you'd better start asking questions then, huh?"

Ardyn pauses, then narrows his eyes suspiciously. "You're agreeing too easily," he says, tone accusing. "What guarantee do I have that you'll answer my questions honestly?"

"None whatsoever," Nyx says cheerfully, lifting his coffee mug in a mocking parody of a salute.

Ardyn looks torn between aggravation and amusement before he tips his head in acquiescence, a sharp smirk curling the corner of his mouth. "I suppose that's fair considering the circumstances," he acknowledges.

"What, you mean because you were recently at the top of the list of my enemies? Or because you owe me for helping cure you of the Scourge?"

Ardyn gives a bitter laugh. "Don't pretend that your involvement with the purification was for _my_ benefit," he says. "I don't know what you stood to gain from it, but there must have been _something_. No one embarks on a quest to change destiny and circumvent the gods' plans simply out of altruism."

Nyx considers that for a moment, then shrugs. "I wouldn't say I 'embarked on a quest'," he remarks dryly, "just that I heard something epically stupid and called bullshit on it."

"You say it like it's such a simple matter," Ardyn says, tone subtly condescending in a way that implies that Nyx is being deliberately difficult.

Nyx just rolls his eyes "Believe it or not, yelling at the asshole ancestors of the King was actually extremely straightforward. And surprisingly productive; I recommend it." Hell, if anyone deserves to yell at the Kings of Old, it's probably Ardyn, who's basically been shafted by them his entire existence despite being the oldest member of the bloodline.

"And just who are _you_ ," Ardyn asks, "that you can speak to them in that way with such impunity?"

"What impunity?" Nyx retorts. "They hate my guts, in case you didn't pick up on that from their little 'interloper' jab."

"They say you stole their power," Ardyn returns, gaze sharp as he watches Nyx carefully.

Nyx is fairly certain his face is doing something complicated, because of all the things that he would have liked Ardyn to _not_ remember from that pre-purge conversation with the Lucii, that tidbit _absolutely_ makes the top of the list. "They're mistaken," he says curtly, teeth gritted as he remembers those ancient kings towering above him, judging him and finding him unworthy only to change their minds at the last possible second.

"Yes, you said that before as well," Ardyn remarks, expression somewhere between thoughtful and cunning. "Would you like to elaborate on that?"

"Not particularly," Nyx says, and is spared from any further conversation on the subject when his phone suddenly goes off, blaring a jaunty little tune into the tense atmosphere of the apartment. "Oh, thank fuck," he mutters, because he doesn't think he's ever been so grateful to have a conversation interrupted by a phone call _in his life_. "Ulric," he says by way of greeting.

"Gertrude's team was ambushed by a squad of magitek soldiers," Pelna says without preamble. "Our scouts in the area report that they were captured and taken to a nearby Imperial outpost, presumably for interrogation."

"Fuck," Nyx says, setting his coffee cup down on the closest flat surface and snatching his uniform up off the dresser.

He's on his way out of the city twenty minutes later, after two very tense conference calls (first with Regis, Clarus, and Cor, then with Crowe, Libertus, and Pelna) and a detour to the Kingsglaive garage to requisition a vehicle.

("Your doctor is going to murder you," is all Libertus has to offer in the way of encouragement, but Nyx takes it in the spirit in which it was meant and gives a little huff of laughter in response.)

Ardyn attempts to tag along but after Nyx threatens to stab him in the face three times in under ten minutes he finally takes the hint and slinks back to the Citadel with some pointed comments about picking up their conversation when he returns.

Nyx files that particular problem away under the heading of 'shit to deal with later' and focuses himself on the mission at hand: finding and rescuing his missing Glaives.


End file.
